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On The Comparative Morality Of The Ancients And Moderns.
and Romans stiled Barbarians ? , —On a general view of their morality the barbarians were not more barbarous . The bestiality of the German women , in throwing their infants at the faces of the Roman soldiers , to damp the ardour of ambition and of victory by the most terrifying spectacles inhumanity could exhibit , is even more defensible than the outrages I have already mentioned . As to other vices that characterised these two politer lethe
peop , licentious communication of the sexes , we know , was . pretty generally countenanced . An excess of drinking was so prevalent among the Greeks , that pergrcecari implied the frenzy of drunkenness . We are told ( though it is hardly to he credited ) that Cyrus , preparing to attack his brother Artaxerxespublished a manifestoin which he asserted his superior
, , claim to the throne of Persia , because he could swallow the most wine . Is it possible that so shameless a manifesto could be published by a modem prince ? For these vices the Roman people also were notorious—ad diurnam stellam matutinam potantes , from Plautus to Seneca ; the latter of whom affirmed , that the women even exceeded the men .
With respect to the prodigality and luxury of the ancients , we have numerous instances , unequalled by our . wildest excesses—our most delicate refinements in voluptuousness . We are told by Plutarch , that Alexander spent twelve millions of talents upon the funeral of Hepheestion ; and , for the extravagance of the emperor Heliogabaluswhat prince on earth can now pretend to rival him ?
, Historians inform . us , that , while his fish-ponds were filled with rosewater , his lamps furnished with the balsam that distils from the Arabian groves , his dining-room strewed with saffron , and his porticoes with gold dust , he had every day new vestments of the richest silk , or woven gold I
. If it be said that , though not so extravagant , we are yet more voluptuous than the ancients , I would only look to the Roman luxuries at Baia ? to obviate so frivolous an objection . There are some who may pretend that I have been all this while collecting a few vices as they are thinl y scattered over the face of the ancient world ; that I have been unfairly bringing into view the more
prominent irregularities of men , to the degradation of the species , and to the confusion of historical truth . But ' this I deny . I have brought forward , the vices that have characterised whole ages and nations . The best ages of Greece and Rome will shrink from a comparison with modern times . In Greece the common people-were subjected to such a legislation , and such reliion
a g , that their brightest morals were stained with impurities . The applauded virtues of the Spartan commonwealth are blended with glaring imperfection . The laws of Lycurgus , so repeatedly the theme of oratorical panegyrick , are little else than a mass of corruption . They are founded in false and vicious principles . They hold forth absurdities which would shock the good sense of a modern legislator . . Among a variety of other barbarities they directed the exposure , and , consequentl y , the destruction , c
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Comparative Morality Of The Ancients And Moderns.
and Romans stiled Barbarians ? , —On a general view of their morality the barbarians were not more barbarous . The bestiality of the German women , in throwing their infants at the faces of the Roman soldiers , to damp the ardour of ambition and of victory by the most terrifying spectacles inhumanity could exhibit , is even more defensible than the outrages I have already mentioned . As to other vices that characterised these two politer lethe
peop , licentious communication of the sexes , we know , was . pretty generally countenanced . An excess of drinking was so prevalent among the Greeks , that pergrcecari implied the frenzy of drunkenness . We are told ( though it is hardly to he credited ) that Cyrus , preparing to attack his brother Artaxerxespublished a manifestoin which he asserted his superior
, , claim to the throne of Persia , because he could swallow the most wine . Is it possible that so shameless a manifesto could be published by a modem prince ? For these vices the Roman people also were notorious—ad diurnam stellam matutinam potantes , from Plautus to Seneca ; the latter of whom affirmed , that the women even exceeded the men .
With respect to the prodigality and luxury of the ancients , we have numerous instances , unequalled by our . wildest excesses—our most delicate refinements in voluptuousness . We are told by Plutarch , that Alexander spent twelve millions of talents upon the funeral of Hepheestion ; and , for the extravagance of the emperor Heliogabaluswhat prince on earth can now pretend to rival him ?
, Historians inform . us , that , while his fish-ponds were filled with rosewater , his lamps furnished with the balsam that distils from the Arabian groves , his dining-room strewed with saffron , and his porticoes with gold dust , he had every day new vestments of the richest silk , or woven gold I
. If it be said that , though not so extravagant , we are yet more voluptuous than the ancients , I would only look to the Roman luxuries at Baia ? to obviate so frivolous an objection . There are some who may pretend that I have been all this while collecting a few vices as they are thinl y scattered over the face of the ancient world ; that I have been unfairly bringing into view the more
prominent irregularities of men , to the degradation of the species , and to the confusion of historical truth . But ' this I deny . I have brought forward , the vices that have characterised whole ages and nations . The best ages of Greece and Rome will shrink from a comparison with modern times . In Greece the common people-were subjected to such a legislation , and such reliion
a g , that their brightest morals were stained with impurities . The applauded virtues of the Spartan commonwealth are blended with glaring imperfection . The laws of Lycurgus , so repeatedly the theme of oratorical panegyrick , are little else than a mass of corruption . They are founded in false and vicious principles . They hold forth absurdities which would shock the good sense of a modern legislator . . Among a variety of other barbarities they directed the exposure , and , consequentl y , the destruction , c